


Girls' Night

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Foxtrot [97]
Category: Dollhouse, Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-29 13:42:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6378100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: <i>Any, any character who is more than one person in one body, She keeps getting kicked out of Girl's Night because her male alternate soul/personality/ego/imprint just can't keep his opinions to himself.</i></p><p>Aunt Traci is fun to have around for girls' night, but Uncle John has nothing nice to say about Justin Bieber.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Girls' Night

“Justin Bieber?” Uncle John choked on his soda and nearly ruined the polish job he was doing on Cousin Madison’s nails. “You’ve got to be kidding. That guy’s a little -”

“Aunt Traci,” Cousin Madison said firmly, “if you can’t keep Uncle John under control, you won’t be invited to girls’ night anymore.”

Anna glanced at Clara, biting her lip. Mom had sat them down years ago and explained about why Dad was in jail, about the Dollhouse and the bad things that had happened to Uncle John. Clara had researched the Dollhouse some on her own, seen the interviews with Uncle John where he had all kinds of crazy skills the real John Sheppard hadn’t had, but the Dollhouse had programmed into him. Like playing piano. Playing piano with Uncle John was Clara’s favorite thing, and it wasn’t real.

But then Uncle John had sat her down and explained that Foxtrot John Sheppard was who he really was, that everything inside of him, all of the people and all of the things they’d done and knew, were part of who he was. Mom told them it was all right, Uncle John loved them, they were allowed to spend all the time they wanted with him, but if he made them uncomfortable, the grown-ups understood.

Anna was afraid of all the people inside of Uncle John. What if some of them were bad?

Clara still felt betrayed, that her favorite thing about her Uncle John wasn’t real. But then she met Cousin Madison, Uncle Rodney’s niece, and Madison told all kinds of stories about painting with Uncle Evan and dancing with Aunt Traci and getting help on her French homework from Translator and help on her math homework from Uncle Joe, and Clara thought maybe spending time with Uncle John - all of him - wouldn’t be bad.

Madison had come up with the idea of girls’ night with Aunt Traci. Anna was willing to try it if Mom and Aunt Jeannie were there too. So here they were, gathered in the den at the house, surrounded by pillows and blankets, snack food, soda, make-up, nail polish, and a bunch of teen magazines (they’d been taking the quizzes and giggling over the answers). When Aunt Traci was in control, she was a totally different person from Uncle John. Spoke differently. Talked with her hands more. Moved differently, sat differently - much straighter, because she was a dancer and posture was important. The moments when Uncle John broke through were disconcerting.

“But...Justin Bieber?” Uncle John protested.

Cousin Madison glared at him. “Into the corner with you until you can think of something nice to say about Justin!”

Anna looked at Mom and Clara, wide-eyed, but Uncle John actually ducked his head and shuffled off to sit cross-legged in the corner, facing the wall.

He was there for all of thirty seconds before Cousin Madison said, “Well? Are you quite finished?”

“Um...Justin Bieber’s a really good drummer?” Uncle John said in a small voice.

Cousin Madison looked to Anna, who nodded cautiously, and Cousin Madison sighed.

“Fine. You can come back now.”

“Yay!” Aunt Traci was back in control, came bouncing back to sit beside Cousin Madison and resume painting her nails. “Ugh, ignore him. I think Justin’s really cute. And he’s a super good drummer. You know who I like better, though? Louis, from One Direction. He reminds me of JC from -”

“NSYNC!” Mom cried. “Yes! You’re totally right.”

“Who?” Anna asked.

“The band Justin Timberlake was in,” Aunt Jeannie said wisely. She was painting little flowers on Anna’s nails.

A spasm crossed Aunt Traci’s face. “NSYNC?”

“Uncle John!” Cousin Madison barked. “For the last time!” 

Aunt Traci rolled her eyes. “You know what we should do? We should fire up YouTube and show these girls what a real boyband is made of.”

“Parachute pants and carefully choreographed dance routines,” Mom said dryly, but she was reaching for her laptop anyway.

Clara thought she saw alarm cross Uncle John’s face, but then Aunt Traci was saying, “Did you see that cover of That Thing You Do that they did? They played all their own instruments. It was kind of awesome.”

Mom’s eyes lit up. “I always liked that song. And that movie. Let me see if I can find it…”

Mom, Aunt Jeannie, and Aunt Traci had weird taste in music, as it turned out, but as far as Clara was concerned, Aunt Traci was invited to girls’ night again.


End file.
